Right around that time, 7 or 8 burly men, all wielding heavy sticks, came rushing into the room and started facing off with Ah Wan.
Ah Wan may be a formidable fighter in the ring, but right now, he was severely outnumbered.
Zhou Xufang loosened her grip on Jiang Zhi. "Stay here and don't move."
Pulling down the brim of her cap, she turned around to join the fight. With one swift kick, she intercepted a bar that was heading straight for Ah Wan's back.
"Who ordered you to come here!?"
A masked man, presumably their leader, gestured for them to stop the attack. "You are Z?"
"Yes, I am!"
Her opponent sized her up haphazardly. "The client sent us here to assist you."
As expected, her client had decided to use a backup team.
Zhou Xufang pushed up her glasses which was crafted from a special material. Facing these men, she rejected their offer. "Don't need it."
"We will not interfere with your mission. As long as you send the target to the specified location, we will leave immediately after. I repeat, we will not stand in your way."
The pair of eyes behind the sapphire-colored lenses appeared cold and hostile. Suddenly, everyone around her could physically feel her rage boiling up in the air. Lowering her voice as much as she could, she issued a final warning to the goons.
"I don't like people messing with the task I have chosen to accept."
She played by her own rules. Being a lone ranger, cooperation with another person was out of the question, let alone an entire team of men.
As if these men had already expected Zhou Xufang's reaction, they cut straight to the chase.
"We, too, have accepted money from someone in return for executing this request. Now, excuse us."
Upon receiving his order, the underlings immediately formed a circle around Zhou Xufang. Simultaneously, they shook their steel bats and electric batons at the lone girl while shouting at the top of their lungs.
With no weapon in hand, she held up her fists and began pummeling everyone around her.
Ah Wan couldn't believe his eyes. Those brutal batons and bats seemed almost useless when facing this runner. They swung their crude weapons around wildly, but all they ended up hitting was empty air. That woman's speed was lightning fast, dodging each attack swiftly and….
She wasn't even attacking. Instead, throughout the scuffle, she remained entirely on the defensive.
Ah Wan stared at the battle with his jaws agape. He turned over to ask Jiang Zhi, who was also observing the fight, a question. "Boss, aren't they part of the same team? Why'd they start fighting among themselves?"
"Shut your trap."
"Oh."
Propping himself against the wall, Jiang Zhi got to his feet and slowly dragged his feet toward the hurricane of dangerous men.
Ah Wan yelled for him to stop.
Hearing Ah Wan's yelling, one of the men who held an electric baton in his hand turned around and started charging toward Jiang Zhi. Ah Wan was about to jump in front of the young master to take the blow but stopped a few steps short when Jiang Zhi countered the attack successfully. Raising his arm, he pinched down lightly, or at least that was what Ah Wan saw, on the assailant's wrist.
The electric baton clanged as it hit the floor. Jiang Zhi's pinch was so painful that the man's eyes were upturned.
Ah Wan was astounded. Wasn't this guy supposed to be weak and ill all year round?
"Are you trained in martial arts, boss?"
Without training, a normal person wouldn't be able to pull off such a feat. The way he countered that electric baton seemed so effortless and precise, there was no way Jiang Zhi could be a regular man.
The young master pulled out a handkerchief and was wiping down his hand when he responded to Ah Wan's question.
"No, I haven't."
As he spoke, he was able to take down a 6-foot-tall man with a well-aimed kick. As if that wasn't enough, he crushed down on his victim with the heel of his shoes to deal the finishing blow. Throwing his handkerchief aside, he freed up both his arms without hesitation.
"Who the hell did he hire? What a useless bunch."
He couched twice after complaining about his opponents' incompetency. A misty look was starting to appear in his eyes but Jiang Zhi tried his best to suppress it.
"!"
Ah Wan was alarmed.
Apart from the "eight-pack" discovery Ah Wan had made about the young master, he had finally uncovered a new truth about the man. However, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the noise of something shattering.
Crash!
The blue and white porcelain teacup laying on his coffee table had been smashed into smithereens by one of the goons.
Jiang Zhi's eyes shot over toward the culprit with a frown on his face. He had spent a full 5 million yuan in an auction on that set of teacups. They were antique items that had been hand-crafted by an artisan over hundreds of years ago. Too bad they had been smashed up by this bastard.
Then, one of the men who had retreated toward the coffee table lost his balance and fell backward, right onto the shards of razor-sharp porcelain. The pain was so immense that his face turned as colorless as a sheet of paper. Cursing under his breath, he produced a dagger that had been hidden in his breast pocket. Getting to his feet, he furiously threw himself at Jiang Zhi, who was the closest enemy he could strike at.
"Boss look out!" Ah Wan called.
'Jiang Zhi!'
Zhou Xufang pushed back a duo that had surrounded her and leaped in front of Jiang Zhi. She reached out to grapple the dagger but at the last moment, her hand was seized by the sneaky b*stard.
When she turned back, Jiang Zhi was looking straight into her burning eyes.
Just as the dagger was about to plant itself into her flesh, her wrist, which was held by the man, jerked backward strongly. Spinning around, she slammed her shin into the man's midriff, causing him to wail out in pain. With a loud metallic clang, the dagger fell onto the ground.
"Who in the world are you?"
Those eyes…
Jiang Zhi stared at the eyes behind her glasses. He stood there dumbfoundedly for a moment before reaching out to take off her mask.
That moment was enough for the man she had just disarmed to pick his dagger back up and slice at Jiang Zhi's outstretched arm.
Not given any time to think, Zhou Xufang pushed Jiang Zhi aside. The dagger had unfortunately grazed a vein on her right arm, instantly soaking her sleeve with blood. Without even flinching after sustaining such an injury, she took the man down with a swift kick.
Jiang Zhi, on the other hand, had been sent flying backward from that shove.
Ah Wan hurried over to assist the young master. Being his bodyguard, the situation had been so nerve-racking that large beads of sweat had started to accumulate on his forehead.
"You alright, boss?"
Not moving, he focused his eyes on Zhou Xufang, who was now dealing with the goons entirely on her own.
Pressing on her injured arm with the other, she kicked up the pieces of broken porcelain, peppering her opponents with a hailstorm of deadly fragments. Even the lights had been knocked out of service, plunging the room into darkness. Right at that moment, no one was able to make out where the pair of glowing red eyes were.
A very long time had passed since she had last felt such anger. Whenever she became angry, her pupils would turn red, just like the color of her enemy's blood that would soon flow freely.
Shrouded by darkness, the armed men searched blindly for traces of their enemy.
Taking advantage of the light offered by the corridor outside, she locked her legs around one of the men's neck, and with a merciless jerk, the man fell limply to the ground.
She was simply too agile for them to handle!
Not sparing them the chance to react, she leaped into the air, dealing with 2 opponents at once. One of them earned her kick, while the other, her punch. She had specifically used 30% of her full strength in this one punch. The two men yelled out in pain and simultaneously, collapsed onto the floor.
"If you don't leave now, none of you will be spared." She glared at the men with bloodlust in her eyes.
Rumors about Runner Z had already spread like wildfire in their world. Word had it that her powers were near endless and she moved as quick as lightning. One of the more outlandish claims, however, was that she could move as swiftly underwater as she did on land.
The men looked at each other and made the final call to exit the room. They were unable to take down a mere woman despite being a team of fully-grown men themselves.
After making sure that the men had truly left, Zhou Xufang shut the door and turned around.
Alarmed, Ah Wan stood fearlessly in front of Jiang Zhi with the most intimidating expression he could make. "Don't you dare come near us. I've already called the police."
This "harlot" was certainly top-tier in terms of her fighting capability. Should she decide to attack, the young master's virginity was surely done for.
Luckily, she stood still at the doorway. The murderous air that surrounded her had finally faded away, and the look in her eyes was relatively calm. Despite them being covered in darkness, she continued wearing her mask and her baseball cap. Suddenly, she spoke out in a hoarse voice, "Don't do anything stupid. Sit tight and I'll leave when the police arrive."
'What does she mean by that?'
'Was she not here to take Jiang Zhi's virginity away?'
Ah Wan's brain had been turned to mush. He was clueless as to what was really going on around him. He turned over to seek answers from Jiang Zhi but he was already preoccupied with staring at this mysterious runner.
"Who hired you?"
She remained silent.
"What is your goal?" Jiang Zhi probed. In the dark, his eyes latched on tightly to the other pair of glowing eyes. "Why are you not taking me away?" he added.
Her mouth was sealed, and she continued guarding the door with one arm pressed on her wound.
Jiang Zhi hesitated when the faint metallic smell of blood reached his nose. After a moment though, he kicked the first aid box underneath the coffee table over to the bleeding runner.